Hmmm... No graphic this issue. It's not necessary for this issue's topic. I'll bet a lot of you are wondering just WHY you haven't seen anything happening here on @anime! for the last few months. Well, let me tell you a story. I'll try to keep it short, so as to not bore everyone.

The beginning of the story started in back in September. As part of one of my many alternate lives, I do some work for Warp Graphics, the publishers of the comic series Elfquest. I was commissioned to do some coloring for a segment of the series that was being published by the German importer of the comic. The time frame was tight, but I didn't think that the coloring would be too much of an obstacle. The original deadline came and went, but I expected that. Coloring 32 pages in a week was literally impossible. Add that onto my normal job and, well, you get the picture. But that wasn't what caused the silence. Two weeks later, the company that I was working for decided to start letting people go. I was high enough up on the ladder that I figured that I'd be fine, but that's what I get for thinking.

Yep, I was given the ol' boot. I was left with no job, but I had plenty of options to consider. I could stay in Utah and get another job like that last, the ever popular underpaid, overworked slave labor that is the multimedia world or I could take a chance on something else. Looking at option one, I was cringing at the thought. So, like any insane person, I went for number two. I took a week to prepare stuff and then I loaded all my stuff in my trusty Dodge Neon (It's called EVA-01, by the way. It's the newest thing in automobiles. The Dodge Neon Genesis Evangelion... Different. Oh yeah, you can laugh at it later.) and started driving eastward. It was the first time I had really been away from "home", so it was an interesting adventure. I ended up in Arlington Heights, IL with a better job and a bit more time than I had before. Now I'm able to spend a bit more time doing stuff like this. @anime! will be here for a while. We don't plan to leave any time soon, but now we can get back to work at bringing you what you want to see and hear about.

We have a few things that we're working on for our first issue of 2000. We'll be reworking some things, adding others. We've had a bunch of requests for a subscription system where we can let everyone know when a new issue is out. We've got plans to add some more interactive stuff on the site... There's lots coming. As always, if you have suggestions for anything, series that you'd like to see reviewed, feature topics, things we should add, stuff we should throw into the trash can, ANYTHING, please send us an email to suggestions@atanime.com. We'll also be getting to the stuff that should have been in issue 3. Lots of stuff is being planned, so keep on the look out.

I'd like to thank everyone that has been patent with us through this time of silence. We're still here and were ready to take this into 2000 with a bang! Just be sure to hang on. Don't want to lose anyone on the ride!